Ping: Phil

Snittens wrote:
wrote

Oh, my gosh! The SAME THING happened to us! The shelter manager was
going to the city, and spotted a cat carrier on the side of the road.
She though, hey, we can use that carrier! And there was a black cat in
it. They still have that cat. His name is Highway.

Sherry


Our shelter had a cat a couple years ago named Freeway, because he was found
in the median of I-93. His paw pads were nearly gone from frostbite, then
he almost died of distemper. He was adopted by a real sweetheart of a
volunteer and lives a great life.

We had a litter of kittens left in a carrier at the fence last year while we
were open. People must have been too chicken **** to bring them all the way
up to the shelter. Of course we get the dog tied to the fence, cats left
overnight, cats that just happen to be found on the property. Every time I
pull up and see a box or carrier outside, I panic for a moment.

-Kelly

Ugh. People suck. The chicken **** award here, goes to the person who
left 4 tiny kittens in a bucket at the shelter door overnight. We got a
torrential rain that night, and they drowned. That's why I have fought
tooth and nail everytime anyone even *suggests* implementing a fee for
dropping off animals. They won't pay it. They'll leave with the animal
and dump it somewhere.

Sherry

Sherry

"Phil P." wrote

I think you did the right thing. I wouldn't have given them a cat-
especially a kitten- either. Applications don't even scratch the surface-
you have to go on your gut instincts. I've known plenty of 'bad people'
that take much better care of their cats than 'good people' who have
'perfect' applications.


It's completely instinct with adoptions. Some people you just know right
away are awesome adopters, some there's something wrong and you can't quite
put your finger on it, so you start looking for reasons not to adopt to
them. Unfortunately, sometimes your instinct fails you, or you ignore it
because they are on paper good adopters and you can't turn them down, and it
turns out awful.
I'm going to be returning to the shelter from my break and I said I would go
back to doing adoptions, but part of me doesn't want to. I am always second
guessing myself. Sometimes when I'm falling asleep at night, I wonder how a
cat is doing.


Having a cat's live and future entrusted to you is an awful
responsibility.
You have to do what you can live with and what feels right.



It is. I'm so sick of this "how dare shelter workers screen people when
animals are dying" thing. You and Sherry both gave great examples of
exactly why people need to be screened, and why screening isn't even enough
to stop the assholes at times. Any old home (or winding up as pit bull
bait, or left outside, or other horrible fates) is NOT better than being
euthanized, IMHO.

-Kelly

Snittens wrote:
wrote

Oh, my gosh! The SAME THING happened to us! The shelter manager was
going to the city, and spotted a cat carrier on the side of the road.
She though, hey, we can use that carrier! And there was a black cat
in it. They still have that cat. His name is Highway.

Sherry


Our shelter had a cat a couple years ago named Freeway, because he
was found in the median of I-93. His paw pads were nearly gone from
frostbite, then he almost died of distemper. He was adopted by a
real sweetheart of a volunteer and lives a great life.

We had a litter of kittens left in a carrier at the fence last year
while we were open. People must have been too chicken **** to bring
them all the way up to the shelter. Of course we get the dog tied to
the fence, cats left overnight, cats that just happen to be found on
the property. Every time I pull up and see a box or carrier outside,
I panic for a moment.
-Kelly

Our local shelter had a ball python left at the fence one night, with a note
stating that they thought it was dying and it should be put down. It had
fleas/mites and was in the process of shedding it's skin, but otherwise was
healthy. It is now a permanent resident at the shelter (was adopted by one
of the directors of humane association), and is sooooo cool. I've held it
on occasion while it's cage was being cleaned.

I am very impressed by Phil's decision about the kitten. In Australia we
have a terrible feral cat problem for that reason; people get cats and don't
look after them, or else deliberately dump them, then they go feral. There
is plenty to eat in the australian bush for a cat, yummy things like native
marsupials, lizards and frogs. Our cat came to us that way; she walked out
of the bush one day, showing signs of malnutrition and abuse. We took her in
and fed her, and won her trust, and she is the best cat we've ever had. we
recently moved 3000 miles, and she (and all our other pets) came with us.
She sat on my lap all the way, and we let her out for a wee on a leash every
two hours. She never once tried to run away, but stayed with us. She is so
loyal, she seems to know we rescued her and be grateful to us for being nice
to her. When I am sick, she comes and cuddles me, and she sleeps in my son's
room all night. She is such a lovely cat, and perfectly toilet trained, with
the best manners. I can't understand how someone could dump her, and abuse
her like that. It definitely pays to screen families, and restrict people's
access to cats. Does your shelter desex cats? The shelters here desex all
their animals, and vaccinate them. My dad's dog came from one, and she is
the best dog. Sorry about jabbering on, but I love my cat! I am so happy we
found her before she slowly starved to death, got killed by a dog or a tick.
Snittens wrote in message
...

"Phil P." wrote

I think you did the right thing. I wouldn't have given them a cat-
especially a kitten- either. Applications don't even scratch the
surface-
you have to go on your gut instincts. I've known plenty of 'bad people'
that take much better care of their cats than 'good people' who have
'perfect' applications.


It's completely instinct with adoptions. Some people you just know right
away are awesome adopters, some there's something wrong and you can't
quite
put your finger on it, so you start looking for reasons not to adopt to
them. Unfortunately, sometimes your instinct fails you, or you ignore it
because they are on paper good adopters and you can't turn them down, and
it
turns out awful.
I'm going to be returning to the shelter from my break and I said I would
go
back to doing adoptions, but part of me doesn't want to. I am always
second
guessing myself. Sometimes when I'm falling asleep at night, I wonder how
a
cat is doing.


Having a cat's live and future entrusted to you is an awful
responsibility.
You have to do what you can live with and what feels right.



It is. I'm so sick of this "how dare shelter workers screen people when
animals are dying" thing. You and Sherry both gave great examples of
exactly why people need to be screened, and why screening isn't even
enough
to stop the assholes at times. Any old home (or winding up as pit bull
bait, or left outside, or other horrible fates) is NOT better than being
euthanized, IMHO.

-Kelly

meee wrote:
Does your shelter desex cats? The shelters here desex all
their animals, and vaccinate them. My dad's dog came from one, and she is
the best dog. Sorry about jabbering on, but I love my cat! I am so happy we
found her before she slowly starved to death, got killed by a dog or a tick.

Sounds like you got a great cat. The sweetest, most affectionate cat I
have is one that strayed up half-starved out of nowhere.
Our shelter desexes cats; I imagine every shelter does. It is a state
law here that no shelter can adopt out a whole animal. If the animal is
too young for the surgery, shelters must collect a deposit that's
refunded when proof of spay/neuter is brought in.

Sherry

Magic Mood Jeep=A9 wrote:
Our local shelter had a ball python left at the fence one night, with a n=
ote
stating that they thought it was dying and it should be put down. It had
fleas/mites and was in the process of shedding it's skin, but otherwise w=
as
healthy. It is now a permanent resident at the shelter (was adopted by o=
ne
of the directors of humane association), and is sooooo cool. I've held it
on occasion while it's cage was being cleaned.

Ball pythons (Royal pythons) make great pets if you can get one that
was bred in the US (or adopt one). Do not ever, under any
circumstances, buy them imported from Africa. The wild-caught mothers
are stolen from their dens, the babies are removed from her and she is
made into soup. In transport thousands of the babies die en route to
places like PetCo. It's a nasty trade in exotics. Also wild-caught
snakes are often heavily parasitized and don't feed well.

-L.

Snittens wrote:

Our shelter had a cat a couple years ago named Freeway, because he was found
in the median of I-93. His paw pads were nearly gone from frostbite, then
he almost died of distemper. He was adopted by a real sweetheart of a
volunteer and lives a great life.

We had a litter of kittens left in a carrier at the fence last year while we
were open. People must have been too chicken **** to bring them all the way
up to the shelter. Of course we get the dog tied to the fence, cats left
overnight, cats that just happen to be found on the property. Every time I
pull up and see a box or carrier outside, I panic for a moment.

-Kelly

That's how I got my Tessa. Some dip**** woman had dumped her husband's
puppy over the fence at night. Hubby came in to claim the dog in the
AM and was refused - was told he could apply to adopt her. He did, and
was denied. He threatened the shelter will all kinds of acts of
violence. Tessa was kept under lock and key and when I said I'd adopt
her, they took her and held her in the back out of the public eye until
I could pick her up. She, of course, was oblivious to the whole thing
and just thought she had had a fun night playing in a huge fenced yard.


-L.

That's great!! It's a pity more people don't desex their cats here. I
rescued a litter of cats from a woman who 'didn't notice' the kittens
starving to death, dying from flea aneamia and worms, or the fact that the
mother wasn't feeding them, until her CHILDREN came and told her two were
dead. as it was -0 degrees and they were outside on the verandah in the
wind, by the time I got to them it was too late. I did my best for two days
and two nights, kept them under heat lamps, feeding every four hours etc but
it was just too late, they were too weak to rally. It was so sad because
they were the most beautiful little babies, pretty tortoiseshell colour, but
so thin. Then Jasmine came to us the day they died, so she helped us feel
better. We weren't supposed to have her at our last house, we had to hide
her from the landlord. Fortunately our present landlord doesn't mind the
cat/dogs/bird/guinea-pigs/fish and neither do our neighbours, so jasmine is
free to terrorize the neighbourhood dogs. She's not afraid of anything!!
Anyway, Im babbling on again. Here's a picture of her. My husband was kind
of apathetic to my other cats, but he adores jasmine, she's a real
sweetheart. I'm putting a picture in of her later
wrote in message
oups.com...

meee wrote:
Does your shelter desex cats? The shelters here desex all
their animals, and vaccinate them. My dad's dog came from one, and she
is
the best dog. Sorry about jabbering on, but I love my cat! I am so happy
we
found her before she slowly starved to death, got killed by a dog or a
tick.

Sounds like you got a great cat. The sweetest, most affectionate cat I
have is one that strayed up half-starved out of nowhere.
Our shelter desexes cats; I imagine every shelter does. It is a state
law here that no shelter can adopt out a whole animal. If the animal is
too young for the surgery, shelters must collect a deposit that's
refunded when proof of spay/neuter is brought in.

Sherry

meee wrote:
I
rescued a litter of cats from a woman who 'didn't notice' the kittens
starving to death, dying from flea aneamia and worms, or the fact that the
mother wasn't feeding them,

What *is it* with people? This is *common*. We've had people bring in
litters that were half-dead from flea anemia and they don't even
notice. There's a whole, separate class of pet owners. People like us,
and people whose pets are simply fed, if they're lucky, and then
they're on their own. It's those kind of people that scare me about
adopting pets out.

Sherry

wrote in message
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Kiran wrote:
: There's nothing worse than going against your gut instincts by
: placing a cat and finding out later that cat lived a life of misery
: and abuse or neglect.

Maybe we have a philosophical difference here, but I can think of one
thing that would be much, much worse for me:

It is not a philosophical difference. You don't understand the content
of Phil's paragraph above. When you've seen enough adoptions go bad,
you develop a radar over time and the ability to pick up on nuances
that indicate this is *not* a good home. Never go against gut
instincts.

You're right. I've had co-workers ask me why I declined an adoption when
the people "seemed so nice". After I explain why, they'll say "I didn't
even
notice that".

I never ask a lot of questions, I just encourage them to talk about their
past and present pets and family. Many people will disqualify themselves
without realizing it.

Phil